Iowa lawmaker seeks statue of 1st female lawyer

Published On: Feb 21 2013 04:03:40 PM CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -

An Iowa City lawmaker wants to place a new statue in the U.S. Capitol to honor an Iowa woman who was the nation's first lawyer.

Democratic Rep. Mary Mascher introduced a bill Wednesday that calls for placing a statue of Arabella Mansfield in the Capitol's National Statuary Hall. Mansfield, of Mount Pleasant, became the first woman lawyer when she passed the Iowa bar exam in 1869.

The bill calls for a seven-person committee to raise money for the creation and placement of the statue. It would replace a statue of Samuel Kirkwood, an Iowa governor during the Civil War.

In 2011, Iowa officials agreed to replace a statue of Sen. James Harlan at the U.S. Capitol with one of Nobel Peace Prize winner and Iowan Norman Borlaug.

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